On our way walking towards the early successional forest we happened to see a brown lump inhabiting a crook in a tree. After further investigation, we determined that this curious spiky animal was a porcupine. After looking at the porcupine with binoculars, we all agreed that the porcupine was sleeping.
Even though we did not see this animal, we found lots of evidence. Scattered throughout the Early succesional forest were small holes. These holes were home to tens and hundreds of rabbits that relied on the early succesional forest for survival.
Not all birds like to nest in or inhabit mature forests; many birds prefer young forests with a dense array of shrubs and small trees. The early-successional habitat found at the Green Mountain Audubon Center is used by many species of birds and other animals.
What Is An Early Successional Habitat?
Early-successional habitat is a young forest made up of small, dense tree and shrub stems with an open canopy. Each phase of succession is categorized by the specific vegetation and wildlife found at a given place. Very few forests manage to evolve into mature forests because of disturbances. A distrubance can be something as simple as mowing your lawn, where you are essentialy preventing that land from reverting back to its natural state by continuously cutting it. Other disturbances may be: ice storms, wind damage, flooding, or drought, to name just a few. Here at the Audubon Center, small sections of land are cut (disturbed) every 7-9 years to ensure the continual availability of early-successional habitat.
Why Early-Successional Habitat Important?
Two hundred years ago, Vermont was full of fields ideal for ground nesting and foraging birds. But after many farms were abandoned around the turn of the last century, these fields grewback into a wooded landscape. Although the abundance of mature forested areas is good for many wildlife species, for the birds that depend on early-successional habitat, development of young forests into more mature forests means they're getting squeezed into fewer and fewer places. At the Audubon Center, maintaining enough early-successional habitat to support breeding populations of species such as chestnut-sided warblers is an important management goal.